Flooding in Mayer forces iconic antique store, museum to close

“He had spent thousands of dollars into upgrades when he bought the place and within 30 minutes that’s all gone."

Author:
Halie Cook

Published:
5:48 PM PST August 8, 2017

Updated:
5:48 PM PST August 8, 2017

Flooding in Mayer has left one iconic antique store and museum with no choice but to close its doors for good and send what’s left of its inventory to auction.

Thousands of items from Smitty’s Antiques Museum will be sold at EJ’s Auction House and the doors will be closed after the store was hit hard by flash floods.

“Imagine this, for your entire life you dream about doing something then you finally get to a spot where you can make that dream a reality and you show up at your dream and you’re told flash floods are coming and within the span of 30 minutes that dream is washed away. That’s what happened,” said Erik Hoyer, owner of EJ’s Auction House.

Kenneth Soe purchased the store in February and Hoyer said it was his dream to make it into an iconic destination.

After putting in a new parking lot and making renovations to the building, Hoyer said there is no money to continue when more flooding will continue to threaten the area.

“He had spent thousands of dollars into upgrades when he bought the place and within 30 minutes that’s all gone," said Hoyer, "and in talking to authorities -- it won’t stop. He’s looking at several more floods this year and it’s going to go into next year."

EJ’s Auction House sent crews to the store to box up the inventory and get it ready to be auctioned off in Glendale.

“It’s going to take several sessions, several weeks. We figure eight weeks of auctions, every Saturday,” said Hoyer.

The first of those auctions is scheduled for Saturday starting at 10 a.m.

The public can bid live, online, or via phone. A free public preview begins on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For details, visit www.ejsauction.com or call (623) 878-2003.